Meet the embattled governor who finds himself at the heart of one of the biggest crises in America

Michigan
Gov. Rick Snyder delivers his State of the State on January 19,
2016.(AP Photo/Al
Goldis)

When Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) first ran for the office in
2010, he championed himself as "one tough nerd." (It's even his
Twitter handle.)

For someone who was experienced with computers and accounting and
campaigned on a moderate platform, the "nerd" moniker
worked.

The former Gateway executive and venture capitalist had never
previously run for political office prior to his 2010 campaign,
but it didn't stop him from winning the election in a
landslide.

"One tough nerd" was in office.

Fast-forward more than five years later.

Snyder — whose main appeal was that he could fix Michigan's
sagging economy in the aftermath of the nationwide economic
collapse of 2008 — has enraged faced a barrage of
across-the-board for his handling of the water crisis in Flint,
whether they be a part of his constituency or
Democratic presidential candidates
like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Hillary Clinton.

The crisis in Flint is nearly unfathomable to imagine in
modern America.

An entire city
was drinking and bathing in water that had been
contaminated with lead after the state switched its water
supply to the Flint River in April 2014. The Flint River
contained more corrosive water than what was being sent to the
city from Detroit's water supply, and it ended up causing
the lead from an aging pipe system to be leached.

Even after complaints the water tasted and smelled bad, caused
rashes, and was shown to contain high levels of lead, the state
took months to act, not making its first moves until last October
and not declaring a state of emergency until January. Clinton has
chastised Snyder for the state government's inaction, and
Sanders has called on him to resign.

A water expert called the crisis one of the greatest American
drinking water disasters in history, according to Rolling
Stone.

Snyder finds himself face-to-face with a situation that will
play perhaps the defining role in his governorship.

"The tragedy that we’re seeing in Flint is a man-made
crisis," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said
Thursday.

Michigan Gov. Rick
Snyder.AP Photo/Carlos
Osorio

How he got here

Snyder's appearance on the political scene came after more than a
quarter century in the business world.

His career started with a near decade-long stint at the Detroit
office-accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand. That was
followed by a stint in California working as executive vice
president before he was promoted to become the president and
chief operating officer of Gateway. He later cofounded a
venture capital fund in Ann Arbor, hometown to his alma mater,
the University of Michigan.

His first political stunt came early in the 2010 election
process, as Snyder was competing against four other contenders
for the Republican nomination in a crowded primary. He ran an ad
during the Super Bowl declaring himself "One Tough Nerd" — the
phrase Snyder has come to embrace so much, he even uses it as his
Twitter handle.

It worked. Snyder won the primary with 36% of the vote. He later
won the general election with 58% of the vote, promising to
bring Detroit back from bankruptcy and the state back from the
economic disaster that had gripped much of the country.

He's clashed with
both the right and the left in his state. The former, at
times, has criticized him for defending Common Core. He has been
disparaged as not sufficiently conservative on social issues,
such as when he vetoed an abortion bill. And he has
talked about the need to welcome more immigrants, though he
was also the first governor to suggest a pause on Syrian refugees
being admitted to the country
last fall.

For their part, Democrats have been enraged with Snyder
over right-to-work legislation and other unfriendly union
policies, in addition to the handling of the most recent public
health catastrophe in Flint.

He is often credited with helping Detroit to emerge from
bankruptcy. But Snyder nevertheless saw his approval ratings
plunge, The
Washington Post reported, and he barely won re-election in
2014.

Snyder came up as a potential vice-presidential nominee for
2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, whose father George was once
the governor of Michigan, before Romney ended up tapping then-US
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin).

His name was floated around as a possible 2016 candidate, but
decided against entering the crowded field.

Now, after
promising to "fix" the problems in Flint in his State of the
State address Tuesday, he's about to embark on arguably the
greatest test of his governorship.

Sarah
Rice/Getty

His biggest crisis

Problems with Flint's water supply were discussed within Snyder's
office immediately after the city switched to the Flint River in
April 2014.

An email recently released by the governor's office
contained a press release from the announcement of Flint's
switch that made note of concerns from residents about the
quality of the water. They were shot down as "myths."

On October 1, two months after the state "quietly" delivered
1,500 water filters to the city and almost 18 months after the
initial switch, Snyder first said he was aware of the problems
with Flint's water supply,
The Detroit Free Press reported.

The state did not immediately instruct residents to stop drinking
the water without a filter, however. It wasn't until January that
the state began delivering water bottles and filters
door-to-door, and Snyder declared a state of emergency in the
area earlier this month, on January 5.

It wasn't until nine days after that announcement, on January 14,
that Snyder asked Obama to declare a federal state of emergency,
which
freed up to $5 million in federal aid for Flint. The state
previously allocated $10 million to assist Flint,
Reuters reported.

Free Press columnist Nancy Kaffer found
that an analysis claiming Flint's water was safe last summer
was deemed to be flawed by a number of state staffers — but was
still subsequently promoted by the state. Another
analysis that raised more concerns about the contaminated
water supply was "disregarded," according to Kaffer.

Recently, it's become clear that a "dramatic" increase in
cases of Legionnaires disease, a severe form of pneumonia, in
Flint are likely connected to the tainted water supply, according
to the
Free Press, which cited officials from the Michigan
Department of Health and Human Services.

At least eight petitions to recall Snyder were filed with
Michigan's secretary of state as a result of the water crisis,
the Free Press reported Thursday.

"I think every single American should be outraged,"
Clinton
saidduring Sunday night's Democratic debate.
"We've had a city in the United States of America where the
population, which is poor in many ways and majority
African-American, has been drinking and bathing in
lead-contaminated water. And the governor of that state acted as
though he didn't really care."

Sanders then added: "Secretary
Clinton was right and what I did, which I think is also right, is
demanded the resignation of the governor. A man
who acts that irresponsibly should not stay in power."

Adding fuel to the fire, In a
recently released email from September 25 — just days before
Snyder (R) said he first became aware of the severity of the
water crisis in Flint — his former chief of staff Dennis Muchmore
wrote that he "can't figure out why the state is responsible."

The email came a day after doctors reported high levels of lead
in Flint children. Muchmore said the responsibility fell to local
government, per emails which were released by Snyder Wednesday,
and added the issue had become a "political football."

Muchmore did note that former state Treasurer Andy Dillon
signed off on the city's plans to build a water pipeline from
Lake Huron, which required a temporary switch to the Flint River
during construction.

Muchmore later told the governor that residents were "caught
in a swirl of misinformation" about lead contamination and that
it was up to city and county leaders to confront the issue.

"Of course, some of the Flint people respond by looking for
someone to blame instead of working to reduce anxiety," Muchmore
wrote. "We can't tolerate increased lead levels in any event, but
it's really the city's water system that needs to deal with
it."

He also said two state agencies and the US Environmental
Protection Agency could not "find evidence of a major change" in
lead levels.

Once Snyder said as soon as he became aware of elevated lead
levels in people's blood, he took action. He insisted to
Time he was not ignoring the emergency.

“There was some time period where we were offering filters, we
were working hard to get water," he
told Time. "All these kind of things. But not enough of it
was being accepted. Now we’re to the point now where hopefully
we’re fully engaged and have everyone working hard to make sure
everyone in Flint has access to a water filter.”

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which told
residents the water was safe despite contradictory reports, was
at fault of “being probably too technical in their
interpretation of things or following a traditional pattern of
doing things rather than stepping back to look at what else you
might see in data,” Snyder said.

Michigan
National Guard members help to distribute water to a line of
residents in their cars in Flint, Michigan.Thomson Reuters

Flint has been switched back onto Detroit's water supply
until the lead contamination problem is solved. The head of
Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality resigned as a
result of the crisis.